Another Race Walk gold medal for Russia – Day Four Morning Report

The morning session of competition day four here in Ostrava was highlighted by the final of the Boys 10,000m Race Walk with yet again another Russian athlete taking top honours.

16-year-old World Youth leader Stanislav Emelyanov took his country’s fifth World Youth title in the event in five editions of the championships in a new Championship record 41:49.91.

It was expected that Russia would repeat the Girls Race Walk double from last Tuesday but Denis Strelkov, the year’s second fastest youth, performed below his own expectations and finished a disappointing eighth.

Instead it was Mexico’s Pedro Daniel Gomez who stepped up taking his country’s first medal of the week, a silver in a new personal best 43:11.87. Vito Di Bari of Italy came in third with a PB 43:36.13 in a race which registered no fewer than 17 personal best times.

Javelin and Hurdles Qualification rounds

Jamaica’s Shermaine Williams was the fastest qualifier to advance to this afternoon’s semi-final as she clocked a superb 13.37 into a 1.1m/s headwind in the Girls 100m Hurdles.

Williams’ new personal best is also the second fastest time of the year behind World leader Nataly Martinez who unexpectedly did not start this morning.

Julian Purvis of the US, older sister of 100m finalist Ashton, was also an impressive winner in heat 4 as she lowered her personal best to 13.45 with Kierre Beckles of Barbados close behind in 13.47.

It was a high quality event where the four fastest dipped under 13.50 and 13 out of the 16 qualified athletes improved their personal bests.

A massive first round throw of 55.90m by World Youth leader Tazmin Brits was the most notable performance in this morning’s qualification round of the Girls’ Javelin Throw.

The South African leads five automatic qualifiers to tomorrow’s final with Brazil’s Jucilene De Lima, the second best this morning more than four metres adrift with 51.67m.

Cachova still leads Combined Events

Katerina Cachova of the Czech Republic was still in the lead in the Girls Heptathlon her 5.84m performance in the Long Jump adding 801 points to her tally for a total of 4171 points after five events.

The German pair of Carolin Schafer and Elisa-Sophie Dobel who were in second and third position respectively after the first day swapped places following a poor showing by Schafer whose best effort today was only 5.33m. Dobel jumped 5.90m and is now 79 points behind Cachova with a total of 4092.

Event winner Els De Wael, who was the only athlete to break the 6 metres barrier sprung from 10th to 6th in the overall standings with two events remaining.